I am the LORD, your God, who grasp your right hand; It is I who say to you, “Fear not, I will help you.” Fear not, O worm Jacob, O maggot Israel; I will help you, says the LORD; your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
While we love the “fear not” and being grasped by the right hand, I doubt that any of us are really excited about being a worm or maggot.
As history looks back on us, it will not just be the millennial “snowflakes” that are judged harshly. Largely, from the boomers onward, we have, in the name of self-esteem, raised successively more egocentric generations. We will rail against the self-agrandizing behavior of the president, without realizing that he is in many ways merely a reflection of a society in which humility is no longer a value. Even if we are the greatest country in the world, should we be the ones to say it? There was a time when Americans were content to have others say it about us.
The prophet Isaiah reminds us today that in the grand scheme of things we are but a speck. As individuals, as a nation, and as a Church, the words of the prophet remind us that if we want our redeemer to take us by the right and lead us, if we want him to tell us “fear not”, then must humbly embrace how small we truly are and how much we need His help..
